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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Why?

Kids spend day after day asking why. Why is the sky blue? Why do birds fly? You know the drill. How often do we, as parents, ask why? Parents come in all types. There are those that suddenly find that they will be parents without any previous plan. Some will welcome the news, some will worry or be sad. Some plan for years. Some adopt. Some are young, some are (ahem) like me, a bit older. What is true for many parents is that there is no real training other than how we were raised. Some may have carried an egg around in high school. I think we are all in agreement that raising children is as far removed from keeping an egg safe as you can get. (Although there are those days that if you kept them safe, fed and changed their diaper on occasion, we call it a triumph.)

What if as parents, we asked why as often as our curious children? What if the majority of the expectations, lessons, words etc. were prefaced with the question why? What if instead of going through the motions on auto pilot because it's what your parents did or what your preacher tells you or it's what you do without thought, what if you stopped and asked yourself why you're doing what you're doing? What if you asked yourself, what is the purpose of this word, this action? What is my goal? What do I want to accomplish, teach, gain, learn and why?

Yes, it might get as exhausting as answering your own child's why, but it may also lead to growth and purpose. We are not striving for perfection, but we should be striving for purpose. Answering why is what gets us on that road.